Friday, October 10, 2008

A second life

hello peopleA happy vijaya dashami, a kick on mamata bannerji's ass, a standing ovation to ratan tata and a belly busting fit of laughter at the supersized american.Life as usual has been rolling out its fantastic unpredictability in my face. Sometimes i think life, if it could be given a gender has to be a woman! what drama!!!I am in a wheelchair now. Partially paralysed. Ha! you all didnt expect that did ya????Yeah i am. And welcome to the world of Guillain barre syndrome and myeloradiculopathy.Allow me to extempore. And i do hope this helps people who are afflicted by this "rock star" disease as i like to call it. Click on the link for a concise idea of what this is. Basically a virus from something as simple as a fever, cold or a tummy upset attacks your body. the body produces anti bodies to counter it, gets rid of it, but then turns around and attacks your nervous system. It usually does so in an ascending manner. Legs, torso, arms, respiratory system, throat, tongue, facial muscles.I was back on the 12th of september after a photoshoot on steroids for a new beer brand called Kingfisher Blue in malaysia. 15th morning, was predicted to be a normal day by the weatherman. Not for me. I woke up with my left leg behaving like rubberband girl. It felt like it had gone to sleep, the way it does when you have slept in an awkward position in the night. There was no control at all, but i could still feel touch. By evening it had not abated and the feeling was spreading to my right leg. In the evening when sanne was back i collapsed on the floor trying to get from the bedroom to the living room. Unfortunately a trip to the chief ortho in manipal hospital did not bring about a proper diagnosis and i was send back. 16th morning had both my legs paralysed. To make a long story short, colleagues from office (bless their wonderful hearts) rushed over and carried me to the hospital and two more friends/doctors made a few phone calls to facilitate my admission to the hospital. After a delay of another 24 hours during which time it spread to my torso and both my arms i was diagnosed with borderline gbs brought on by post infectious myeloradiculopathy. MRI, CT scans, electro, spinal/blood extracts thankfully showed no further complications. I was admitted to manipal and administered steroids to contain the spread.7 days later i was send back home. In a wheelchair. i am continuing my medication and i have a red cross male nurse who helps me with everything. From carrying me from the bed to the pot to dressing me up. Sanne has been the most wonderful girlfriend in the days when i could not find a nurse, doing all this by herself, and still gets continually bothered by me in the nights when i have to turn in bed or take a pee. :) god bless you my darling. i promise you i will make up for all the lack of sex and the lack of sleep. hehehhehe....And so now i continue my days with intense physiotherapy and electrotherapy everyday. Though neither the docs or the physio is willing to tell me how long it will take for a complete recovery. a few months to............i will be happy the day i can atleast freely move my legs and stand up with the help of walking sticks. Its terrible for a fiercely independant person to have someone help you with putting on your underwear.But i will beat this bitch. Patience in getting your nerves working again and mentally staying positive is the key.All in all it has been a humbling experience. the body that one takes for granted. the wiggling of your toe that u do not even think about, the knee that holds you up, the hand that makes your career..... the fact that you stand upright without even thinking about it.The foolishly fallible creature that is the human being, running behind money, politics, manipulations, bigger house, fatter pay cheqes, kissing ass for more power, control. what a fucking joke. You are not even in control of your own fucking body. You do not understand the divine mystery that it is. i think everytime i will now see a power struggle, an act of dominance through manipulation, an extempore at being superior i will be laughing my ass off inside my head. :)I leave you with an artice i read by jag suraiya which vividly demostrates the fat cat attitude and how ignorant we are."Long before Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae became the stuff of urban nightmares, America had been super-stuffing itself. Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary film, ‘Super Size Me’, is an allegory of the economics — and the consequences — of gluttony. The title of the film refers to the American practice of ‘supersizing’ fast-food items by adopting a pricing policy which induces customers to opt for larger portions. For a 30-day period the 32-year-old film-maker subsisted on a diet of three McDonald’s meals a day, ‘supersized’ only at the initiative of the vendors. The result: in a month, Spurlock had put on 11.1 kg, developed high blood pressure, psychological disorders and liver problems. It took him 14 months of rigorous detoxification to come back to normal. Spurlock’s cautionary tale is a parable about America’s chronic, insatiable appetite for not just fast food, but for everything, from gas-guzzling cars to climate-controlled condominiums. The statistics have become an environmentalist’s litany: with 5 per cent of the world’s population, the US consumes 24 per cent of the world’s energy; an average American consumes as much energy as 13 Chinese, or 31 Indians, or 128 Bangladeshis, or 370 Ethiopians. America’s total calorie intake is 815 billion calories a day, which nutritionists say is some 200 billion in excess of requirement, sufficient to feed 80 million people. Moreover, each day, Americans throw away 2,00,000 tons of edible food. If developing countries wanted to live like this, four new Earth-sized planets would have to be created to provide the necessary resources. And the best part is that it’s not America which has been picking up the tab for its prodigal, supersized lifestyle, but the rest of the world. On the tried-and-tested principle that if you owe your bank a hundred bucks you’re a defaulter, but if you owe it a couple of million you’re its most valued customer, the US has been blithely living on credit for years, funded by trade deficits and foreign investments. In 2007, the total US trade deficit (i.e. the amount by which imports exceeded exports) was a little over 700 billion dollars (does that figure have a topical ring to it?). Of the 4.4 trillion dollars worth of US treasury bonds (basically IOUs issued by America’s Federal Reserve Bank) more than 25 per cent are held by foreign countries, China alone accounting for 414 billion dollars. If all these IOUs were to be called in, not just the US but the whole global economy would implode. At the risk of its own bankruptcy, the world can’t afford to let America go bust. Like a supersized Humpty Dumpty, America has fallen off the wall, or rather, off Wall Street. Will all the world’s resources and all the world’s banks be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again? That’s the 4.4-trillion-dollar question for all of us, and not just for the US. "

Peace and love to all and a heartfelt thanks to Vikru, Sameera, pops and sumanth for "being there" at the right time.

Here's wishing you all the very best from the bottom of my heart. If you hadn't written on my blog, i would never have known this fact.I have happened on your blog earlier but never knew that you were so badly afflicted.Life is so freaky!LoveRavi

whoa...midnight impulse browsing can be shocking sometimes. i'm at a loss of words. i guess, all things aside, i find myself wishing you a quick recovery. i also find it in my heart to wish sanne & you well.